THE 10-MINUTE RULE
Seats for advance ticket and pass holders are held until 10 minutes before showtime,
when any unfilled seats are released to the public. Thus, advance tickets or passes
ensure that you will not have to wait in the ticket purchase line but do not guarantee
a seat in the case of arrival after the 10-minute window has begun. Your early arrival
also helps get screenings started promptly. We appreciate your understanding. Advance
ticket holders who arrive within the 10-minute window but are not seated may exchange
their tickets for another screening at the Ticket Outlet or obtain a cash refund at
the theater. There are no refunds or exchanges for late arrivals or for missed screenings.

DIRECTOR: STEVE YORK UKRAINE/US If the world remembers one image from Ukraine's Orange Revolution, it is the hideously scarred face of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, and the mystery of his near-fatal poisoning. For many, that's both the beginning and the end of the story. York fills in the blanks with this in-depth documentary, which features footage never before seen even in Ukraine; penetrating conversations with those who made the revolution; and live music performed at pivotal moments. Capturing the spirit and determination of the most successful political protest of the decade—a nonviolent victory in which a group of ordinary citizens engaged in extraordinary acts of political protest—ORANGE REVOLUTION tells the story of a people united, not by one leader or one party, but by one idea: to defend their vote. ( 106 min )

Shown in conjunction with the Building Cultures of Peace Conference at Portland State University.^ Top

Sun, Sep 14, 2008
at 1 PM

32ND YOUNG PEOPLE'S FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL

DIRECTOR: VARIOUS The Film Center's annual Young People's Film & Video Festival celebrates the creativity and talents of students who are using video, animation and multi-media to share their ideas and concerns with the rest of the world. Each year, media makers in grades K-12 living in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska are invited to submit their new short films— narrative, documentary and animated—for a panel of jurors to review based on originality, artistic merit, technical achievement and persuasiveness. Today, this year's outstanding entries will be screened for an enthusiastic audience of filmmakers, parents, teachers and friends. Come see what's on the mind of the next generation. The full program can be found on page 14.

NORTHWEST TRACKING — VISITING ARTISTS DIRECTOR: ALI COTTERILL US Through interviews, Super-8, and animation, Cotterill fills in the gaps in her memory of the death of her father when she was four years old.

THE BEST OF POWFEST: The annual Portland Women's Film Festival, produced by Sour Apple Productions in partnership with Film Action Oregon, focuses on celebrating the cinematic contribution of international and local women filmmakers. Tonight we present a selection of outstanding local films showcased at last Spring's Powfest and welcome the filmmakers.^ Top

Thu, Sep 18, 2008
at 8 PM

PERSON, PLACE OR THING

NORTHWEST TRACKING — VISITING ARTISTS DIRECTOR: ELLE MARTINI US Alexis, a drifter who finds comfort in her invisibility on the streets, must choose between preserving her anonymity and reconnecting with the world around her. ( 17 min )

THE BEST OF POWFEST: The annual Portland Women's Film Festival, produced by Sour Apple Productions in partnership with Film Action Oregon, focuses on celebrating the cinematic contribution of international and local women filmmakers. Tonight we present a selection of outstanding local films showcased at last Spring's Powfest and welcome the filmmakers.^ Top

Thu, Sep 18, 2008
at 8 PM

SMALL MOVEMENTS

NORTHWEST TRACKING — VISITING ARTISTS DIRECTOR: NICKY ROBARE US The Sprockettes, the world's first team of all-female mini-bike dancers, animate the lives of its members and the community around them. ( 8 min )

THE BEST OF POWFEST: The annual Portland Women's Film Festival, produced by Sour Apple Productions in partnership with Film Action Oregon, focuses on celebrating the cinematic contribution of international and local women filmmakers. Tonight we present a selection of outstanding local films showcased at last Spring's Powfest and welcome the filmmakers.^ Top

Sat, Sep 20, 2008
at 8 PM

RED HEROINE

LIVE MUSIC EVENT - DEVIL MUSIC ENSEMBLE PRESENTS DIRECTOR: WEN YIMIN CHINA Tonight we welcome the return of Boston's Devil Music Ensemble (DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and NOSFERATU) for a live performance of their genre-bending accompaniment to the only surviving episode of the Chinese 13-part serial RED KNIGHT ERRANT. Drawing inspiration from the traditions of Chinese classical and folk music, as well as from classic kung fu cinema soundtracks, DME's definitely modern take spiritedly brings to life one of the few complete, and earliest extant, silent martial arts films—a prime example of the Wuxia (errant knight swordplay) genre, often based on published novels or serials. A band of outlaws raids a village and kidnaps a maiden, causing the death of the young woman's grandmother. Rescued by a mysterious Taoist hermit, she a re-emerges three years later as a full-fledged warrior, flying through the sky to avenge her grandmother's death. While generously sprinkled with anachronisms and prurient incongruities (imagine a bandit's harem of beauties in bikinis), the film remains a robust telling of a young woman's transformation from abject victim to resolute warrior. ( 94 min )

NORTHWEST TRACKING - VISITING ARTIST DIRECTOR: MIKE SHILEY US Portland director Mike Shiley (INSIDE IRAQ, DARK WATER RISING) is creating a reputation for tackling our most combustible political issues. Focusing on immigrants from impoverished Latin American countries, his new film offers not only an examination of the complex web of difficulties facing those setting immigration policy in the United States, but also offers solutions. "This film is a gathering of voices from across the spectrum of our broken immigration system. It's an attempt to break through the noise and highlight a range of sensible, bipartisan solutions."—Mike Shiley. ( 60 min )

DIRECTOR: SERGE BOZON FRANCE "This wayward musical's story of lost love and the lives of men in the shadow of war, set in 1917, is one of the loveliest, most surprising films of the year. LA FRANCE is a WWI troop movie with the soul of a troubled nation and the heart (and tune!) of a Beach Boys album. As the Great War rages on, Camille (Sylvie Testud, LA VIE EN ROSE) receives a mysterious letter from her husband at the front: Forget about me, he writes, you will never see me again. Determined to find him nevertheless, she ventures into the damp wilderness disguised as a boy and follows a war-weary regiment led by a gruff but kind-hearted lieutenant (Pascal Greggory). Miles from the front line, Camille becomes a part of the regiment's camaraderie and daily rhythms, cautiously guarding her secret while the men keep one of their own. Between discussions of recipes, readings about Atlantis and segues into song (four remarkable sequences both rapturous and heartbreaking), she discovers something unimaginable in their hearts that begins to reveal the truth she seeks. Joyous, powerful and poetic, Bozon's film (winner of France's Jean Vigo Award for singularity of style) channels the hooks and melodies of '60s sunshine pop while evoking the frontline grit of Fuller and the formal austerity of Bresson—a work of startling originality and charm."—San Francisco International Film Festival. ( 102 min )

CINEMA PROJECT AND NORTHWEST FILM CENTER PRESENT AN INTERVIEW BY SCOTT MACDONALD: US Todd Haynes' remarkable body of feature films—from POISON, SAFE and VELVET GOLDMINE to FAR FROM HEAVEN and I'M NOT THERE—has earned him unique regard as one of contemporary cinema's most eloquent voices. From his earliest shorts he has been a filmmaker who defies the boundaries of form, content and social expectations to craft a singularly personal cinema. Tonight we welcome Haynes and film writer Scott Macdonald, who will interview Haynes and explore the evolution of his work, interspersing their discussion with clips from rarely screened early films. A historian and professor at Harvard University and Hamilton College, Macdonald is most well known for his "Critical Cinema" series that has featured extensive interviews with artists and filmmakers such as Yvonne Rainer, Trinh T. Min-ha, Jonas Mekas, Yoko Ono, and Ross McElwee. Tonight's program opens the Cinema Project's series "Expanded Frames: A Celebration and Examination of Critical Cinema, Past, Present, and Future," October 15th - 19th. The full program schedule is available online at cinemaproject.org.

OPENING NIGHT - PORTLAND LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: MARIANA RONDÓN VENEZUELA Wildly stylized and darkly funny, POSTCARDS FROM LENINGRAD captures a child's-eye view of life in the 1960s among Venezuela's armed revolutionaries. The film's precocious young narrator, the daughter of two militants in hiding, becomes front-page news when she is the first baby born on Mother's Day, forcing her mother to take her and flee. The little girl, who can't reveal her name, tells of life on the run with her cousin Teo, whose own mother has left for Leningrad. Together the two children cope with the brutal realities of guerrilla life by imagining that their subversive parents are superheroes: the Frog Man who survives dunking tortures and the Invisible Being who can't be seen by the soldiers. Mariana Rondón's clever, ultimately heartbreaking drama beautifully conveys the heavy toll paid by those who fought for their radical political beliefs. Venezuelan submission for this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar. ( 90 min )

THE FILM CENTER AND THE ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE DE PORTLAND PRESENT DIRECTOR: VARIOUS FRANCE Cinema occupies an especially important place in French society, with a tradition of major government support underwriting production, distribution and exhibition both inside and out of the country. While established directors find funding for ambitious new feature films, significant investment also goes into short films by emerging, risk-taking talents that give voice to the diversity of French culture. Each year up to 400 short films are produced that collectively offer a unique insight into French life and the next generation of French filmmakers. Tonight's program of recent short films, co-selected and presented with the Alliance Française de Portland, includes an eclectic selection of narrative, documentary and animated international prize winners and a few fresh surprises. Complete film description will be available here and at afportland.org in early October. Artwork by Anna Todaro and Graphic Design by Jim Kirk Thomson.

VISITING ARTIST DIRECTOR: CRAIG BALDWIN US The latest film from notorious San Francisco "kino-renegade" Baldwin (SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM, SONIC OUTLAWS) is a rapid-fire pulp–serial–cum–political take on California's major industries: entertainment, religion, and the military. Part spy, sci-fi, Western, and even horror film, MOCK UP ON MU hits upon everything from Satanism to Scientology, the Beats to the jets (propulsion, that is), revving up stock footage remixes with original live-action scenes. Arising with demonic force from the detritus of the twentieth century, MOCK UP surveys "the repurposing of the popular imagination in postwar California," tracing the "simultaneous rise and convergence of New Age religious cults, the military/aerospace industrial complex and modern-day myths from Disney to certain sci-fi overlords." And in pulp-serial form to boot! ( 114 min )

Baldwin will teach a workshop on collage filmmaking on Tuesday, October 28.^ Top

Fri, Oct 31, 2008
at 7 PM

Sat, Nov 1, 2008
at 4:30 PM

Sun, Nov 2, 2008
at 4:30 PM

LOUISE BOURGEOIS: THE SPIDER, THE MISTRESS AND THE TANGERINE

DIRECTOR: MARION CAJORI, AMEI WALLACH US "The brilliant, iconoclastic Louise Bourgeois', now 96 and surely the grande dame of the art world, full-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum is simultaneously with the premiere of this riveting portrait. The film records Bourgeois at work and play, fashioning art in her studio and ruminating upon the deep emotional and psychological roots of her work. Bourgeois's massive spiders, some as large as 30 feet, have been exhibited throughout the world. They symbolize the maternal impulse, but it is the artist's passionate connection with various childhood traumas (her father's live-in mistress being just one) that fuel much of her groundbreaking work. Critic/curators Robert Storr and Deborah Wye, and the artist's aide-de-camp Jerry Gorovoy, lend piquant commentary."—Film Forum. ( 99 min )

DIRECTOR: FEDERICO FELLINI ITALY Fellini's tale of the simple Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), sold into virtual slavery to itinerant strong man Zampano (Anthony Quinn), is one of the undisputed classics of post-war Italian cinema. Although he shows her no kindness and uses her without affection, she remains devotedly at his side as rivalry and murder rear their ugly heads after the pair join up with a small circus. A film of the greatest joy, the bleakest despair and the most delicate heartbreak. ( 115 min )

Marnie Stark, assistant curator of prints and drawings at the Portland Art Museum, will introduce the film and talk about the Museum's current exhibition of circus prints.^ Top